Judging The Fallen Eagle Is A Minefield For The Afl

The Age

Monday November 19, 2007

Richard Hinds

SINCE the AFL Commission summoned West Coast midfielder Ben Cousins to determine if he had brought the game into disrepute, opinions about how the commission should deal with this sensitive case have been divided sharply.

The hanging judges believe that, having been given every chance to change his ways, Cousins should be punished. That he not only deserves the sanction the AFL failed to apply before the season despite a significant rap sheet, but that the league is duty bound to make an example of the troubled star.

The touchy-feely sentiment is that Cousins is the victim of a society-wide problem. That having put its store in a rehabilitation-based anti-drugs policy, the AFL is obliged to stay the trip with Cousins.

Usually, such disparate opinion would make for a painstaking judgement by the AFL's eight commissioners when they hear Cousins' case today. Particularly given they will be tip-toeing through a legal minefield as they decide what constitutes evidence that Cousins has brought the game into disrepute and what is mere rumour.

That task was made more difficult when the charges, brought after his highly public arrest in Perth last month which triggered Cousins' sacking by West Coast and the AFL summons, were dropped. Not to mention the fact Cousins has never acknowledged his supposed addiction to methamphetamine.

However, unless Cousins' representatives insist on forcing the AFL to make a clear-cut decision on his guilt or innocence, the timing of today's hearing has ensured there is one sensible solution that should satisfy everyone - that Cousins stands out of football for the next 12 months and returns to football in the 2009 season fit, healthy and clean.

The timing is right because AFL clubs will finalise their lists at next Saturday's national draft and the pre-season draft in early December, meaning there is obviously insufficient time for Cousins to satisfy the commission he would be in a fit state to play next season - and no subsequent mechanism for him to take a place on an AFL list before the end of the 2008 season.

Of course, Cousins' representatives might argue that his rehabilitation is further advanced than recent publicity has suggested. But while the recent dropping of criminal charges might help soften the AFL's stance, the commission is most unlikely to allow Cousins to resume training with a club immediately, even if one were willing to draft him.

More difficult to determine than the penalty is how the commission will couch its verdict.

One certainty is that Cousins is not taking the hearing lightly. As the commission judges a case that has embarrassed the game deeply once already, it will be as relieved as Cousins' advisers about that.

© 2007 The Age

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